OF THE ORIGIN OF CHEMISTRY. 33 



we fee the fame procefles as are yet employed 

 by the moderns. 



They did not engrave, but painted Anubis on 

 their (ilver veflels * ; and Heliodorus records, that 

 Chariclca the daughter of the Egyptian prophet 

 wore at her brcall golden ferpents of rin azure 

 colour ; that the fplendor of the gold had been 

 deitroycd by art, to imitate the rough and va- 

 rious fcales, and reprefcnt the fkin fpottcd with 

 black and yellow f* From this, then, it appears 

 that the art of colouring metals by fire was not 

 unknown in fhofe days. The Egyptians made 

 glafs of a dark colour, fometimcs tranflucid, cal- 

 led ob/idinnurn, in imitation of that which was 

 clifcovcrcd by Obfidius in Ethiopia |. But their 

 magnificent cups betray a confidcrable know- 

 ledge in the art of making glafs; and of which 

 the Emperor Adrian, then rcfiding at Alexan- 

 dria, thus writes to the conful Scrvius: " I have 

 " fent to you fomc Alaffian cups of various co- 

 11 lours, given to me by the pried Of the tem- 

 '* pie : They are dedicated to you, and particu- 

 41 larly to my fitter; and I dcfirc that you will 

 44 always produce them at your fcafts on holi- 



days." Bcfidcs thcfc proofs of their ikill, we 



have tcftimonies of their being able to imitate 



the emerald. Pliny mentions, that in Ixh time 



C the 



* Plin. 1. xxxlit. c. 9. 



^ ^f-thiop. 1. v. 



J Plin. 1 xxxvi c *G. 



J Lib. Phl;gonti>. 



